This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/05/dj-neil-fox-cleared-five-charges-indecent-assault-young-girls

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
DJ Neil Fox cleared of five charges of indecent assault on girls Dr Fox exploited fame to sexually abuse young fans and colleagues, court hears
(about 4 hours later)
The radio DJ Neil Fox has been cleared of five charges of indecent assaults on young girls at the start of his trial for historical sex abuse. The 54-year-old Magic FM presenter had been accused of groping nine victims at celebrity appearances and outside his radio studios in central London. Radio DJ Neil Fox exploited his fame to sexually abuse fans as young as 14 and colleagues, a court heard.
He was due to stand trial on 15 separate charges, but prosecutors abandoned five counts on Thursday morning before the case could begin. The 54-year-old, also known as Foxy or Dr Fox, is alleged to have sexually abused three girls under 16 between 1988 and 1996.
The prosecutor, John Price QC, told the court: “I’ve indicated an intention this morning to discontinue five charges. I have prepared a fresh schedule of the live charges.” One of the complainants says she was 14 when Fox took her to an underground car park at Capital Radio in Euston and kissed her. In a separate incident in July 1988, he took the then 15-year-old on a tour of the building’s record library and made her perform a sex act on him while he put his hand in her underwear.
Fox was cleared on Thursday of forcibly kissing a girl at a 1991 motor show in Bromley, south-east London, and four alleged indecent assaults on three girls in Euston in the 1980s. Prosecutor John Price QC told Westminster magistrates court: “The prosecution alleges in this case that he has exploited the privilege conferred upon him by his fame to inflict his sexual actions upon women without regard either for their wishes or their age.”
He remains accused of four indecent assaults on three teenage girls, four indecent assaults on a woman and two sexual assaults on two women. Among the remaining charges is one in which he is accused of forcibly kissing and groping a 15-year-old girl at the same 1991 Bromley Common motor show. Another alleged victim claims he indecently assaulted her at Chessington World of Adventures on 5 April 1996. Price continued: “He also inflicted himself upon adolescent girls – in other words, children.” Price said one of Fox’s alleged teenage victims was a fan of his, and at the time was happy to be alone with him and visited his flat.
A woman, who was over 16 at the time, claims Fox groped her on four occasions at the Capital Radio studios between January and December 2003. Two women have also accused Fox of inappropriately touching them at the Magic FM studio in 2007 and in 2014. He continued: “Her allegation is conspicuous for its seriousness. She was one of a number of young girls, usually aged 14 or 15, who made a habit of waiting outside the premises of Capital Radio in the middle of the late 1980s.
After he was originally charged, another three alleged victims came forward claiming he had indecently assaulted them in Euston in 1987 and 1988. Fox, of Fulham, restated his pleas of not guilty as he entered the dock for the start of the trial. “They used to congregate there in the hope of seeing some of the DJs who worked within the building, or sometimes some of the members of bands who would visit it. She describes how on one occasion Mr Fox asked her to help him carry his records to the underground car park.”
The attacks are all said to have happened between 1987 and last year, when the allegations coming to light through Operation Yewtree, the Metropolitan police investigation into historical sex abuse. The court heard that when there – alone and out of the sight of everyone else – he kissed the girl. On a second occasion, he allegedly took her on a tour of the record library, placed her hand on his penis and then molested her. Price said: “She would regularly go to his flat, intimacy would occur between them.”
The chief magistrate, Howard Riddle, sitting with magistrates Alexia Fetherstonhaugh and Sandie Blandford, formally cleared Fox of five indecent assault charges. During his police interview, Fox admitted the teenager used to visit him, but denied anything sexual occurred, saying they shared a cup of tea. The court heard from a woman who was 14 when Fox allegedly kissed her and put his hand up her skirt at a motor show in Bromley, south-east London, in July 1991.
Fox, also known as Dr Fox and Foxy, found TV fame when he appeared as a judge on the ITV talent show Pop Idol alongside Simon Cowell between 2001 and 2003, helping to launch the careers of Will Young and Gareth Gates. The complainant – who told police she had never been kissed before – said she did not confront the radio DJ because he was older and famous. She said that at the event she and her “gang” of friends had asked for a photograph with Fox, who obliged.
He started his career on Radio Wyvern, covering Hereford and Worcester, on a show called Mellow Yellow in 1984, before a short stint on Radio Luxembourg in 1986. In 1987 he switched to Capital Radio and adopted his Dr Fox moniker when presenting the Midnight Surgery. Describing what happened next, the complainant continued: “When we came to say goodbye and to go, we had a kiss with Neil Fox and he put his tongue in my mouth and put his hand up my skirt.” The court heard that the woman did not say anything to Fox, but backed away from him.
He switched to Magic 105.4fm in 2005, and has won 10 Sony awards, as well as awards from Smash Hits poll winners’ party, and a Sony Gold lifetime achievement award in 2009. The complainant said she told her mother about the attack as soon as she got home that day, and some years later she also told her partner. She finally told the police about the incident after hearing of Fox’s arrest last year.
She told the court: “I heard on the radio – on that particular day it was the teatime news – that Neil Fox had been arrested for an incident where he inappropriately, indecently touched somebody. I was washing up with my father-in-law. I immediately blurted out, as such, to my father-in-law, ‘Oh God, I have had an incident like that’.”
Another allegation says that in April 1996, he forced his tongue into the mouth of a 15-year-old girl after she asked him for a peck on the cheek at Chessington World of Adventures. Mr Price told the court the three adult complainants came into contact with Fox through work at radio stations, spanning a period of 11 years.
He continued: “This demonstrated a long-standing propensity on behalf of Mr Fox to impose himself sexually on young adult women.” One of the women alleges that Fox would regularly touch her bottom, and assaulted her a number of times, while she was working at Capital Radio in London’s Leicester Square in 2003.
As well as simulating sex with her by bending her over a table, the DJ also allegedly refused to do what she asked him to unless she touched her breasts.
Another complainant alleges that, while working at Magic FM between 2007 and 2014, Fox pushed her on to a sofa while tickling her, and exposed her breasts. A third woman claims that, while she was working at the radio station in 2014, the presenter approached her from behind and kissed her bare shoulders, telling her: “I just had to, you look as though you taste so good.”
Mr Price told the court: “She responded by saying ‘That is gross’.”
Before the trial began, the prosecution announced that it would not be pursuing five counts of indecent assault that Fox had been charged with.
Fox denies eight counts of indecent assault and two of sexual assault, all said to have taken place between 1988 and 2014.
Fox, from Fulham, south-west London, was first arrested in September last year, then again in December and March. He attended court with his wife, Vicky, who sat in the public gallery listening to evidence with a group of supporters.
Fox, dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and blue polka-dot tie, took notes throughout the hearing.
The trial continues.The trial continues.